Families plead for lives of Australians on death row in Indonesia

SYDNEY (AFP) – The families of two Australian drug convicts facing execution in Indonesia pleaded for their lives in an emotional interview Saturday, and said they would not give up on them.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, members of an Australian group dubbed the “Bali Nine” who were arrested on the Indonesia island of the same name in 2005, have lost their final appeals for clemency.

“I’ve been told that my son will be taken out and shot at any time. I don’t know what to do,” mother Raji Sukumaran told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“He’s done something stupid, he made a mistake, he’s apologised for that and he’s rehabilitated. Now I’ve been told he could just be given 72 hours and he’ll be taken out and shot.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday urged Indonesia to show mercy to the pair who were sentenced to death in 2006 for attempting to smuggle eight kilogrammes of heroin out of Bali.

File photo on September 21, 2010, shows Australian drug smuggler Andrew Chan, one of the so-called ‘Ba-li Nine’ gang, attending his appeal at a court in Denpasar on the resort island of Bali. Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were arrested on the Indonesia island of the same name in 2005, have lost their final appeals for clemency. – AFP

Last weekend, Indonesia put to death five foreigners and one local woman convicted of drugs offences, unleashing a diplomatic storm as Brazil and the Netherlands condemned the execution of their citizens.

Both Raji Sukumaran and Chan’s brother Michael Chan said they had confidence that the Australian government would do everything it could to prevent the executions.

“I’m not giving up, and I know the Australian government will do everything it can to bring the boys home, or even to stop the execution,” Sukumaran said.

Michael Chan, who will soon travel to Bali to visit his brother, said he too was hopeful, even though he conceded “to know that we’re sort of nearing the end of the road is heartbreaking”.